4 Steps to Accomplishing Your Goals – Arne Giske’s Story: “Dive In”

This is part of the 4 Steps to Accomplishing Your Goals series, a walk-through of the process I use to accomplish many things throughout the year. I’m also highlighting stories from people who’ve accomplished big goals in their life or business.

Today, Arne Giske shares his story of taking action on his goal to have a business that allows him to work from anywhere with wifi. He’s a young entrepreneur from Seattle who’s started multiple businesses since graduating from high school, and now hosts a Top 20 podcast, runs a digital marketing agency, and just traveled to Colombia to try out the digital nomad lifestyle.

The four steps each also have worksheets that help you walk through this process. If you want them, be sure to answer Yes!! on that section on the Insiders signup form (if you’re already signed up, you can update your profile by using the same email you used before).

Arne Giske: “Dive In”

I’m excited to be a part of this, and tell you guys exactly what I did, how I did it, and what went along with all of that.

What exactly did you do?

I moved to Medellín, Colombia to try out the digital nomad lifestyle for the very first time, and I’m very excited about that. I started my online business just over a year ago, and if you would have told me I’d be here right now, I wouldn’t have believed you. I would have said, “You’re crazy!” but here I am. I made it happen.

Why did you want to do this?

The goal was to have a location-independent business: be able to serve my clients no matter where I was, as long as I had wifi, grow it to the point where I was happy enough to do that and not be tied to any one spot, and just be able to travel, to check out the world, go adventure, see new places, and not be tied to anything or stuck in one place. Building the business and doing this trip is what helped me do that.

What was the moment when you decided you needed or wanted this?

I would say just about a year ago. I knew I wanted to travel. I saw a lot of people living the digital nomad lifestyle, and it looked very attractive. It looked like a ton of fun, and it also didn’t look too out of reach. I don’t have a wife, I don’t have kids. There’s nothing really keeping me in Seattle, so I was able to just up and go, when I was ready, and when I was confident enough in my business.

I almost did a trip to Spain, this last summer of 2016, but a gigantic project fell through, and that means the funding for the trip did as well. I had to push it back, and I changed the destination from Spain to Colombia, for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s cheaper, and the other is that it’s in a more relevant time zone. I don’t have to be on a European time zone, so I can still handle my clients, interviews, and business in Eastern time. That helped a lot.

Did you make plans? How did they change over time?

I think I just answered that one, but yeah, I made a ton of plans for this one.

What were the challenges that you faced, and how did you overcome them?

There were a ton. A lot it was logistics, figuring out everything. Everything is new, it’s a country that I’ve never been, figuring out transportation, lodging, where I’m going to go eat, who I’m going to meet, how I’m going to handle everything that I need to handle, from the basic necessities down to the more specific needs of my business, and making sure that I would be accommodated, safe, happy, well-fed, meeting great people. Those are the challenges, and I overcome them by just putting in the work. I put in the work to answer my biggest questions, solve those biggest problems. I put the time in to plan and make it happen.

Had you anticipated any challenges? Did you do anything to prepare or avoid them?

Definitely. I’d say I anticipated challenges because my friend Caitlin Cardoza said, “traveling is just a series of educated guesses.” I really like that line, and I think it makes a lot of sense, because you’re not totally sure of what’s next, where you’re going, what’s around that corner. You just do your best, and you have to be really resourceful to figure it out. That’s what I find that I’ve been doing. I’ve only been here for a couple of days now, but I’m kind of already settling in a bit. In terms of preparation, there’s only so much you can do before you actually have to go out and do the thing. Sometimes best is just: get a little bit of research in, and then go do the thing.

What did you think would happen as you pursued this goal? What actually happened?

Surprisingly, those kind of lined up. I feel like I took a little bit longer, like I said I wanted to do it in summer 2016, but here I am, January 2017, doing it. Took a little bit longer, like any new business, it’s going to take a while to get off the ground and get rolling, and kind of get things nailed down to how you like to work, how you like to be productive and make money. That needed some more time, absolutely.

What did you learn?

I learned a lot. I think that’s one of the cool things about doing something so out of the box, and especially for the first time. I haven’t been a digital nomad anywhere else before, so it kind of just overwhelmed me at first with the ideas, and the culture, and what you do, and how you do it. After you study for a while, and then you start implementing and practicing, then it becomes reality. I learned how to make it happen.

What is your advice to other people pursuing their goals?

Dive in. Dive in. The more you dedicate yourself to whatever it is that you want, put time, effort, resources, money, all of that into those goals, you become a lot more invested in the process. If you just dabble in something for a little bit, and you say it’s your goal, but you don’t take it as seriously, it won’t happen. If I really took that Spain trip seriously this last summer and was a lot more dedicated, I probably would have grown my business quicker, I probably would have been able to afford it and make it happen, but I was just kind of doing it halfway. I didn’t go all in, and I think that slowed me down a lot.

That’s my advice. You’ve got to dive in, you’ve got to dedicate yourself. Believe in your ability to do it, even if it’s something you’ve never done. Just learn from others, research, plan, but number one, execute. Get stuff done. I’d say that’s my best advice for people who are needing to pursue their goals. Just dive in, make it happen, learn from people.